Conformity - Asch Flashcards
What was the task in Asch’s procedure?
Judging line lengths
What did Asch find about group size?
Conformity increased with group size but only to a certain point. With 3 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%, but the presence of more confederates made little difference.
SUGGESTS MOST PEOPLE ARE VERY SENSITIVE TO THE VIEWS OF OTHERS BECUASE JUST ONE OR TWO CONFEDERATES WAS ENOUGH TO SWAY THE PERSON’S OPINION.
What did Asch find out about unanimity?
A unanimous majority had the greatest effect on conformity. The genuine participant conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter. The rate decreased to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous.
SUGGESTS THAT INFLUENCE OF THE MAJORITY DEPENDS LARGLY ON IT BEING UNANIMOUS.
What did Asch find out about task difficulty?
Conformity increased when the task became more difficult. The situation becomes more ambiguous when the task becomes more difficult - it is unclear to the participants what the right answer is.
ISI -> it is natural to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right ad you are wrong.
ASCH’S STANDARD AND COMPARISON LINES
123 American men were tested. Each participant saw two large white cards on each trial. The line X is the standard line. The lines A, B and C are the three comparison lines. One of the comparison lines is clearly the same length as X, the other two are substantially different. On each trial the participants had to say out loud which of the comparison lines were the same to X.
ASCH’S PHYSICAL ARRANGEMENT OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDY
The participants were tested in groups of 6 to 8. Only one was a naïve participant, always seated last or next to last in the group. The others were all confederates of Asch - they all gave the same incorrect, scripted answers each time.
ASCH’S BASELINE FINDINGS
On average, the genuine participants agreed with the confederates’ incorrect answers 36.8% of the time. There were individual differences, 25% of participants never gave a wrong answer (never conformed).
EVALUATION: ARTIFICIAL SITUATION AND TASK
Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected (demand characteristics).
The task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was no reason not to conform.
Susan Fike (2014) said Asch’s groups were not representative of groups we see in everyday life.
FINDINGS DO NOT GENERALISE TO REAL-WORLD SITUATIONS - ESPECIALLY WHERE THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONFORMITY MIGHT BE IMPORTANT.
EVALUATION: LIMITED APPLICATION
Asch’s participants were all American men. Other research suggests that women may be more conformist, possibly because they are concerned about social relationships and being accepted (Neto 1955).
Furthermore, the US is an individualist culture so Asch’s study cannot tell us about collectivist cultures (such as China).
EVALUATION: RESEARCH SUPPORT
There is research support from other studies for effects of task difficulty.
Todd Lucas et al (2006) asked their participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ math questions. Participants were given answers from 3 other students (not actually real). The participants conformed more often when the problems were harder.
EVALUATION: RESEARCH SUPPORT COUNTERPOINT
Lucas et al.’s study found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested. Participants with high confidence in their math abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence.
SITUATIONAL VARIABLES
ETHICAL ISSUES
The naïve participants were deceived because they thought the other people involved in the procedure were also genuine participants.
